One Night Stanzas

Dreaming my new garden
So, along with our new, slowly-emerging-from-a-wreck house, Lovely Boyfriend and I have also obtained two small patches of garden. Right now, they’re basically scruffy little lawns with some weedy borders around them. But I plan to turn these two little spaces into a garden of edible delights (plus a few pretty flowers here and there). I’ve never understood why anyone would have a lawn when they could have a veggie patch. Anyway, I’m pawing through books and beginning to learn a bit about plants… and in the process, I’ve suddenly become excited about garden centres.

…but not all garden centres are the same.
Larch Cottage, at Melkinthorpe (WHAT A NAME) in Cumbria, is no ordinary garden centre. It’s basically like a magical secret garden inhabited by thousands of weird and wonderful statues, all of which come to life at night and grow huge and amazing plants. If that sounds a tad creepy then yeah, I guess it’s a tad creepy. But it’s also amazing. I mean… grumpy gargoyles everywhere, a life-size bronze lion, and a fountain covered in cheeky toucans? If ever you’re in Cumbria, seek it out (it’s hidden down a series of narrow, high-hedged roads) and see what I mean. (There’s also a cool restaurant, an art gallery and a shop full of jewellery, furniture and strange nick-nacks. Woo!)

Spotting my dream car(s) EVERYWHERE
I’ve had this silly daydream for years: one day I will own a vintage Land Rover Defender. It’ll have a crappy tape-deck and bench seats in the back and rattle like a bean can. On the other hand, I also dream (well, who doesn’t?) of cruising around in a beautiful vintage Ford Mustang, preferably wearing a very, very long scarf that billows in the wind…
(But until I win the lottery, and/or get a massive concussion that causes me to forget how much I care about carbon footprints, I guess I’ll stick with the bus!)

Cute books
I’ve been lucky enough to become the proud owner of a series of late 1960s and early 1970s Penguin paperback editions of the Moomin books. I loved the Moomins as a child and have had so many flashbacks, flicking through these super cute books and being jolted about 15 years back in time by so many of the illustrations! As I’m moving house, I’ll be parting with the series (with a tiny tear in my eye) over at Edinburgh Vintage very soon.
Meanwhile, already for sale at EV is the beautiful, minature, leather-bound collection of Burns’ Songs pictured above. My favourite part about it is the gorgeous cover with its tooled image of Calton Hill. Amazing!

The Vogrie Park Greyhound Meet!
Basically about 50 greyhounds all together in one place being SUPER CUTE. Lovely Boyfriend and I each got to befriend and walk one of them — his was Sam, mine was Neville. (Neville’s at the front left of the pic, wearing a blue cape!)

Edinburgh…
Edinburgh on a warm sunny day is basically THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD BAR NONE. This past week I have seen so many of its millions of moods, as evidenced by the photos above! Found poetry, flickering neon, juvenile graffiti (but with a social conscience!), crumbling elegance, amazing long evenings full of swifts. THANK YOU, MAGIC CITY.

…and Edinburgh window displays. Giving me ALL THE FEELS.
I love the grumpy, sassy-looking dogs at Pink on Castle Street. I really, really want one. Just, yaknow, to sit in my living room. They make me super happy whenever I walk by.
But oh… then there’s this INCREDIBLY SAD window display in a Morningside toy shop. The tall snooty giraffe being sniffy about his friend! And the small, fat giraffe looking so ashamed of himself! Call me infantile if you like, guys, but it’s enough to make me want to run in there, buy both of them, take them home with me and talk them into being friends again.

What are YOU loving this week?

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Budding writer? Creative person in need of a fun job? Check out the various resources and services at Bookworm Tutors. Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Sorry, the poetry contest is now closed! Winners will be notified by 1st December 2013.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: 11.59pm GMT on 1st September 2013

PRIZES
First prize: £100 prize money and a free ten-page poetry critique from Bookworm Tutors (critique optional)
Second prize: £50 prize money and a free ten-page poetry critique from Bookworm Tutors (critique optional)
Two runners up: A contemporary poetry goodie bag, and a free five-page poetry critique from Bookworm Tutors (critique optional)
The two prizewinning poems and the two runner-up poems will also be published at onenightstanzas.com

ABOUT THE JUDGE
Claire Askew is a poet, poetry promoter, editor and creative writing teacher. Her own work has appeared in numerous publications, including Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poetry from the UK; Fit to Work: Poets Against ATOS; and Lung Jazz: Young British Poets for Oxfam. She has won numerous accolades for her poetry, including the Lewis Edwards Award for Poetry, The Virginia Warbey Poetry Prize, and the International Salt Prize for Poetry. Claire’s debut pamphlet collection, The Mermaid and the Sailors, was published by Red Squirrel Press in 2011 and shortlisted for an Eric Gregory Award. She is also a Literary Death Match Champion.
Claire is the founding editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Edinburgh arts zine, Read This, and has therefore read and selected for publication literally thousands and thousands of great poems. She has also judged many a poetry contest, including the Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition (twice!), and the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Festival Poetry Slam. She likes original narratives, striking imagery, verbed nouns, and people who follow the submission guidelines very, very carefully.

ENTRY DETAILS
* Poems will be judged anonymously. Therefore you must send your work as an attachment, not in the email itself.
*Please make sure your name does not appear anywhere in your attached file, as this could lead to your entry being disqualified. (Also make sure there are no other identifying marks on your attached file.)
*Please put all the poems you’re entering into ONE FILE. Do not send multiple attachments as this may cause your email to bounce, or land in a spam folder.
*Please make sure poems are clearly titled, even if their title is “Untitled”!
*If you’re entering multiple poems, please make sure that it is very clear where poems start and end.
*All entries must be made by email, following the instructions above. Entries received by post or other means will not be considered.

ELIGIBILITY
*Each poem must not exceed 40 lines (the title and stanza breaks are not counted as lines. Epigraphs are counted.)
*Entrants must be 16 years of age or over.
*The contest is open to anyone from anywhere in the world. Entries must be in English (this includes dialects of English) or Scots.
*Poems which have been previously published or broadcast (this includes personal blogs) should not be entered.
*Poems which are under consideration for publication or broadcast, or which are currently entered into other contests, should not be entered.
*Poems must be entirely your own work. Sorry, translations will not be considered for this contest.

FEES
*Entry fees: £3 per poem, or £10 for five poems. Each person may enter as many poems as they like, but poems received without entry fees will not be considered.
*Entry fees must be paid via Paypal. Cash, cheques and other forms of payment will not be accepted.

AFTER YOU ENTER
*The deadline for all entries is Sunday 1st September 2013 at 11.59pm GMT. Any entries received after this time will not be considered.
*Poems cannot be edited or changed after entry, so please proofread carefully.
*One Night Stanzas withholds the right to disqualify at any time any entrant who is found to have breached the terms of eligibility given above.
*Winners and runners-up will be notified by email by 1st December 2013.
*Unsuccessful entrants will not be individually notified. If you have not heard from One Night Stanzas by 1st December, you should assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.
*The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

By entering the contest, the writers of the winning poems grant One Night Stanzas permission to publish them at the onenightstanzas.com website. Full copyright of each poem remains with that poem’s author.

(Photo credit)

I’m loving lots of stuff this week as always, but just lately, one thing has been occupying my mind rather a lot.
About two weeks ago, Lovely Boyfriend and I took delivery of the keys to our first house!

We’ve been in there pretty much every available moment of every single day since.

When we got it, the house was a bit of a wreck. It needed new wiring, all the carpets had to be ripped out, and every room was covered in what can only be described as the most hideous textured wallpaper the world has ever seen. The colour pink abounded. Check out these pics for a peek at the hideousness:

Believe it or not, people fought for these wall lights when I put them on Freegle.

Day of key handover: get keys, run to house, immediately begin tearing off awful wallpaper like rabid beasts.

Such tasteful carpeting.

I’m told everyone in Scotland had these bathroom tiles at one point. Can you see the budgie in the pattern?

This was the least offensive of the various wallpapers.

Lovely sunset light… cast by the terrible tulip glass in the back door.

No touchie.

Happily, we’re now two weeks in, and almost all the wallpaper is gone. The carpets are gone. Those floor tiles in the penultimate photo? They’ve been clawed up, leaving a gross sticky residue behind, as they were apparently laid using wallpaper paste, or ogre splittle, or something. We’re almost ready to start sanding floors, to start painting (!), and to get techie drawings for the building work we want to do.

I know these photos make it look pretty gross… but you guys, I love it so much. Partly because it’s a mega project and you all know I love a mega project. Also because it’s ours. And of course because it means I can start growing vegetables and herbs in our wee garden, we can get a puppy, and I’ll finally have space for all my typewriters (well, almost all of them).

Prepare yourselves for lots of excitable progress updates, posts about DIY projects (I’m planning to make my own sofa) and pictures of meals I’ve made using food from my own garden (!). You’ve been warned.

What are YOU loving this week?

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Budding writer? Creative person in need of a fun job? Check out the various resources and services at Bookworm Tutors. Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Hello. I am a Remington Standard 12 manual typewriter, and I am looking for a new home.

So guys, Lovely Boyfriend and I bought a house (…I KNOW). And although there is probably technically just about space in it for my collection of over 30 manual typewriters (yes, really), I decided that now might be a quite a good time to have a bit of a clear out. And as a result, the Remington Standard 12 here is in need of a new home (I have two of these guys. One really ought to be enough, right?).

As you can see, he’s a lovely big old desktop machine with classic handsome looks. You’ll also be able to see that for his age, Remington’s condition is pretty decent. A few knocks and scrapes, but nothing serious. (I got this typewriter about a year ago and have been meaning to give it a darned good clean, after which it’d look a whole lot better, but I didn’t get round to it. A bit of brasso and some warm soapy water and it’ll look fab.) The main thing is: this machine still types! It doesn’t currently have a ribbon fitted, but the carriage moves freely and all the keys work. The shift lock sticks a little, but a bit of WD40′d soon sort that.

Remington here has been a display piece, rather than a working typewriter, since he came to me. I think he looks rather fab just chillin’ out on a bookshelf, coffee table, or somewhere else where he can be (and is, trust me) adored by members of the public (or at least, the ones I invite over for coffee). However, there’s no reason why he can’t be turned into a working word processor.

Remington would like a new home. He would NOT like to be broken down and turned into tacky typewriter jewellery (the kind I used to make way back in 2008, before it became tacky, obv). If you’re a writer or enthusiastic about writing machines or you just want a really freakin’ cool doorstop, please get in touch. Offer to cross my palm with silver (just a wee bit will do), and if I reckon you’ll be a responsible typewriter owner, then he’s yours!

If you’re interested in adopting Remington, please email me via claire[at]onenightstanzas.com, or you can catch me on Twitter. You can leave a comment here if you prefer, but it sometimes takes me a while to wade through the moderation queue!

Tick tick ding!

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Budding writer? Creative person in need of a fun job? Check out the various resources and services at Bookworm Tutors. Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, our sister site. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!